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White House tailors minority health care pitch

The message: Black and Hispanic people stand to benefit the most under the law. | AP Photo

“Given the health disparities, it will disproportionately benefit the African-American community,” Jarrett said at the July 13 event, at which she was the featured speaker.

“So many folks in our community, and you know people who do this, use the emergency room as their primary care. That is not good. You need a primary care physician who you go to see on a regular basis who provides you with preventive care. So under the Affordable Care Act, the cost of that preventive care is free,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting.

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“So no more excuses for not going in for those checkups, whether it’s a mammogram, or prostate testing, or, we know that, for example, asthma is so prevalent in the black community among our children. You need to take your children in for those regular checkups and know that it’s going to be covered and you’re not out of pocket,” she added during the discussion, which was moderated by satellite radio host Joe Madison, known to his listeners as “The Black Eagle.”

Jarrett also cited the reluctance of Southern GOP governors to support the health law.

“If you don’t have insurance currently, we’re going to subsidize it through exchanges around the states. You may have been hearing recently that some of the Republican governors, particularly the Southern Republican governors, are talking about not expanding Medicare, which the Affordable Care Act provides for them to do,” she said, apparently referring to Medicaid. “We think that they should, but we’re also going to set up a federal exchange that allows people who don’t have health insurance to have it and have it in an affordable way.”

The White House declined to make Jarrett available for an interview.

“The health care law will help every American by reducing costs, ending the worst insurance company abuses and extending coverage to millions of Americans who have gone without insurance,” White House spokesman Nick Papas said. “It shouldn’t surprise anyone that administration officials discuss provisions of the law that will benefit the audiences they are addressing.”

But Florida GOP strategist Rick Wilson said Jarrett’s words show the health law is geared more toward eliminating racial disparities than helping the middle class.

“They sold the Affordable Care Act largely as, ‘We’re going to keep middle-class families from having catastrophic non-covered expenses and we’re going to help average, everyday Americans.’ She has a very specific race-based message, she’s playing to her audience at Morgan State,” Wilson said. “It plays to the race-driven mindset of a lot of these people in the Obama administration who look at the entitlement state as a way to address racial disparities.”

Chip Saltsman, who ran Mike Huckabee’s 2008 campaign, said the right will seize on Jarrett’s words as evidence that Obama’s health care reforms are not directed toward the middle class.

“Am I shocked that a senior adviser to the president would go to Baltimore and pander to a town hall to try and get votes for the president? No,” Saltsman said. “Neither will I be shocked that after hearing her remarks, a lot of conservatives are going to say, ‘I told you so.’”

Romney frequently attacks the health care law with a warning that some voters will be attracted to “free stuff” he says Obama has offered them.

“Your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this,” Romney told donors this month in Montana. “If they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy, more free stuff. But don’t forget, nothing is really free.”

Of course, that will last about a week's worth of Obama time. Blacks are merely one of many Americans subgroups that Obama has sliced and diced to infuse with voting energy this year. Consider: the 99%, women and contraception/abortion, women and equal pay, anti-Catholic Church-as employer, middle class tax breaks, pet lovers, gay marriage enthusiasts, Hispanics. Oops, I've lost track.

How could I forget!

I think and hope Obama will get to the following groups soon: speed dating affectionados, tree lovers, bicyclers, and tornado watchers. They vote, too!

PRINCETON, NJ -- The historically high gap between partisans' job approval ratings of Barack Obama continued during Obama's third year in office, with an average of 80% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans approving of the job he was doing.

Mitt's going to win his "birth" state of Michigan..................write it down................oh PPP, a Democratic Cooking polling firm has Obamie up by 14% in Michigan................lol Folks you just can't make this stuff up..................well PPP and NBC News can make things up I guess: Mitchell Research Poll: Romney leading by 1 point in MICHIGAN

Head-to-Head: (Previous results from June 22)

Mitt Romney 45% (46%)

Barack Obama 44% (47%)

With Men:

Mitt Romney 48% (49%) Barack Obama 43% (41%)

With Women:

Barack Obama 44% (52%) Mitt Romney 42% (41%)

With Independents:

Mitt Romney 44% (43%) Barack Obama 34% (38%)

A Survey of 825 likely voters was conducted July 23, 2012. The MOE is +/-3.4%.

Uh, you do realize blacks and Hispanics have always been underinsured and disproportionately affected by unemployment, right? Of course you do, you just feel like making racist comments about black people in general but don't have the guts to be open about your bigotry. Well, carry on.

Yeah, how dare Obama try to appeal to different groups of people! That's crazy! Nobody has EVER tried that before! It must be hard to realize there's more to American than white males. You'll get over it.

The purpose of Obamacare was always to make more and more people dependent on the government not only for their paycheck or handout, but for their health care as well. And the cost of all this will be passed on the shrinking number of people who work in the private sector. As if any confirmation of this was needed as we watched our health care costs climb last year in anticipation of this destructive welfare program.

Since the days of Roosevelt, the aim of the Democratic party has always been to make a majority of the voters wards of the federal government and have the entire cost of this largesse borne by a minority of the voters who will meekly produce all the wealth necessary to support the whole house of cards. At that point, as one of Roosevelt's aides said, they can "tax and tax, spend, and spend, elect and elect". After all, they will have a majority of the voters clamoring for goernment handouts that someone else is paying for.

But the taxpayers are not standing meekly by. Many are simply withdrawing from the economy and living off their savings. Others are moving their investments overseas where they can protect it from the socialists in the Democratic party. And many others are being involuntarily separated from working as more and more jobs disappear.

And the economy is suffereing as a result. Far fewer people are working in the private sector than when Obama took office. It's only a matter of time before the whole house of cards comes crashing down. Then there will be no handouts for anyone. Just look at the history of the Soviet Union when their socialist system fell apart. Look at the current state of affairs in Greece. That is our future. And it's not very far off now.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is partly based on the wisdom of Ben Franklin's old proverb: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While Ben's saying was originally fire-fighting advice, our Congressional Budget Office and independent studies have found it is true concerning healthcare costs too. No out-of-pocket costs for preventive health care will save us hundreds of billions of dollars down the road by catching things before they become impossibly expensive (not to mention fatal). This feature of the law will help all Americans, not just the poor.

One would think Republicans wouldn't dare try to create a political wedge between our middle class and our poor, but these guys and gals are heartless. Remember the debates and the Republicans that applauded letting someone that couldn't pay die? Remember 9-9-9 Cain talking from the debate stage in a self-pitying manner, how he claimed he might not have been able to get the life-saving treatment he received had Obamacare been in effect? He claimed the law would clog up the medical system and make people like himself (the "important" people with money) wait in line, risking his very life. When pressed by Wallace on Fox about the Republican plan to cover 30 million Americans without insurance, a red-faced Mitch McConnell blurted angrily, "That's not the issue." Republicans have no plans to get all Americans affordable health insurance and access to health care. Indeed, their elitist sense of specialness depends on the inequality of access and treatment. Disgusting....

President Barack Obama tends to skim lightly over the details of his health care law in speeches.

Mr. Obama's failed economic recovery is worse for Blacks that now have much higher unemployment. Obama should have focused on jobs and the economy for the Black groups instead of playing golf and having over 100 fundraisers this year already. Divider-in-Chief Obama has failed America's economic recovery that is needed to pay for health care programs.

You're kidding yourself, Ruffles, if you think Team Romney has not sliced and diced all American voters into the same (and more!) categories in order to tailor Mitt's remarks to suit his audience. Team Romney is desperately trying to woo women voters and they have a huge Hispanic con job of political ads they are releasing to woo Hispanic voters too. When among his peers at an old folks home, Romney always remembers to mention Obamacare cuts $500 billion from Medicare. (Of course he fails to mention it won't affect their Medicare coverage and that he supports Ryan's plan to destroy Medicare as we know it by privatizing it with a puny voucher program.)

Look, Mr. Obama couldn't do anything about the economy and high black unemployment so he makes certain he takes care of his base voters with healthcare, free BC pills etc., because he realizes that 15% black unemployment is here to stay.

That's the approach, and foodstamp pandering in Mexico.

it's all part of the low expectations of Obama-America. USA-lite, run by neo-liberals like Obama ,,,a multi millionaire who likes to keep people dependent on government forever.

A Survey of 825 likely voters was conducted July 23, 2012. The MOE is +/-3.4%.

Which means President Obama may be ahead due to the poll's margin of error. But, please, enjoy the 1% victory of the day, for you won't be celebrating on November 5th. (Remember, Romney said let Detroit go bankrupt. Remember, no one in Michigan yet knows the specific economic policies Romney has in mind for them and the rest of us. By Election Day, people will know, or at least enough to reelect President Obama).

America has equal ties to Anglo-Saxon heritage as it has to African heritage, yet the mere talk about one is racism. VP Biden should be ashamed of himself for what he did yesterday and for injecting racism into the 2012 campaign.

Talk about the hypocrisy of demanding that Gov Romney stop talking words out of context while throwing charges of racism without a shred of evidence that Mr. Romney actually using the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" phrase.

But let's face it, anyone voting for President Obama or Gov Mitt Romney because they are black or white are racists and this picture gives people something to talk about. Especially since 14% to 15% of African Americans and 11% of Hispanics are now unemployed thanks to the failed policies of this administration.

President said he would unite America. Instead he has divided this country and has taken racial divisiveness back 50 or perhaps 100 years.

Never in the history of this nation has there been a more racially divisive,hatemongering panderer such as Barack Hussein Obama.In his desperation to win reelection,he has abandoned white working America,instead attempting to bundle every minority and special interest group he can think of with false promises and pandering. In the end,he will just end up using and taking advantage of these groups ,giving them nothing again,just as he has done for the last three in a half years with the unions,blacks,Latino's LGBT's and greens.His pathetic pandering and empty promises are indeed a sign of his weakness,incompetence ,and desperation,all traits that most dictators and despots have in common.Fool me once--------

Never in the history of this nation has there been a more racially divisive,hatemongering panderer such as Barack Hussein Obama.In his desperation to win reelection,he has abandoned white working America,instead attempting to bundle every minority and special interest group he can think of with false promises and pandering. In the end,he will just end up using and taking advantage of these groups ,giving them nothing again,just as he has done for the last three in a half years with the unions,blacks,Latino's LGBT's and greens.His pathetic pandering and empty promises are indeed a sign of his weakness,incompetence ,and desperation,all traits that most dictators and despots have in common. "Hope and Change" has become "Hopeless Change" Fool me once--------

Are blacks and Hispanics underinsured and underemployed? A pretty broad statement, Epicharis.How about narrowing that to the poor and undereducated among us? That would could apply to blacks, Hispanics, Poles, Chinese, Australians, yadda, yadda among us. Are you suggesting that all blacks and Hispanics are under-this-and that? Forget it! Um, who's that making the racist comments!

Of course, every politician is going to appeal to this and that group's interests, Roameo. Agreed. Just more often crouched generally, rather than singling out a different group literally every week. Look back at Obama's speeches for the last 6-8 months. It kinda makes you reel, disgusted, or feel left out, if you're not among the chosen ones of the week.